1. Field of the Invention
Apparatuses and methods consistent with the present invention relate to a liquid crystal display (LCD) apparatus and a control method thereof and, more particularly, to a liquid crystal display (LCD) apparatus capable of lighting an LCD panel by using a light emitting diode (LED) backlight and a control method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, application ranges of display devices are widely extended for various applications due to thin and light weighted design and low power consumption of the LCD apparatus. Accordingly, the LCD apparatus has been used in an office automation device and an audio/video device. Such an LCD apparatus is not a self emissive device, and therefore it requires a light source, like a backlight unit.
Particularly, recently, an increasing number of LCD apparatus adapt a backlight unit (BLU) using a light emitting diode (LED) as a light source. Since the LED is a semiconductor element, a lifetime is relatively long, a turn-on speed is relatively fast, a power consumption is low, and a color reproducibility is superior because each light source (e.g., a red LED, a blue LED, a green LED, and a white LED, etc.) can emit its own specific color. However, an operation of such an LED light source generates heat, and particularly, the number of LED elements increases when the size of the LCD apparatus is large, thereby generating more heat. The heat negatively affects an LED installed as a backlight light source unit of the LCD apparatus and peripheral devices, and therefore a cooling fan is provided to cool down the light source unit of the LCD apparatus.
Even if the internal parts are damaged by heat without a proper heat radiation when the cooling fan does not function, a user response to the problem is delayed and loss of the internal parts of the LCD apparatus occurs in a conventional LCD apparatus, since an immediate check of the cooling fan is not possible.
In addition, an improper operation in driving the cooling fan increases power consumption.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.